Boldlygosolo

10/03/2018

Story on Di**le (giggle) Peninsula in the Boston Globe. Please (pretty please?) click through my blog to get there. In return, you get to see a photo of cute little sheep that wasn't on the Globe's site. http://bit.ly/2IjBSUf

I hadn't heard of the Di**le Peninsula until a few years ago during a "girls weekend," when a friend presented a bottle of Di**le Original Gin from the Di**le Distillery for another friend and I to taste. Then when I was researching a trip to Ireland last year, the travel literature suggested that i...

10/02/2018

Kilkenny, Ireland, is a lovely place to spend time solo. Visit a medieval castle, shop for crafts, tour a 17th-century Irish merchant's townhouse. http://bit.ly/2snbODR (sorry to send you via my blog but I could use some click love. Click on "my visit to Kilkenny. Thank you!

I was looking for an Irish town to spend a view days on my own last April, during a two-week trip around Ireland with a rotating roster of travel companions. Kilkenny stood out. The city an hour-and-a-half south of Dublin is known as the design center of Ireland, but also has a medieval castle, a 17...

25/07/2017

Fields and fields of sunflowers. Bring camera. And capacity for delight. http://bit.ly/2vUxcNA

24/06/2017

Loads of good solo travel info in The Washington Post's travel section.
http://bit.ly/2sCnz7w

15/04/2017

Not a "Good Friday" when an entire country closes its pubs - or drapes its taps with white towels to indicate no sales!! Luckily we found several scofflaws - and the law has been changed starting next year.

11/04/2017

I'm pretty sure this photo isn't crooked.

08/04/2017

Kilkenny Ireland for all your hurling needs!

11/02/2017

Got plans for summer? How about rafting the Colorado River? Gloriously relaxing. http://bit.ly/2khD2m2

04/12/2016

If you like sunshine, steel drums and rum, you'll like Trinidad and Tobago. http://bit.ly/2fZOX5Y

05/09/2016

Teaching English in Spain in exchange for free four-star everything. http://bit.ly/2c6eD1K

So this is how I found myself living luxuriously, swimming laps in a pool facing the mountains in rural Spain, alongside a new friend from Australia. I've been studying Spanish for about five years now and love to practice any chance I get. In a somewhat confused moment, I decided to go to Spain to…

28/02/2016

Visiting historical neighborhood in Richmond isn't limited to black history month. March through January works too. http://bit.ly/1QncdX3

29/01/2016

Got snow?

http://www.boldlygosolo.com/boldly_go_solo/2016/01/skiing-canaan-valley-in-30-inches-of-new-snow.html

If you're going to get stuck somewhere in a blizzard, make it a ski resort, is what I always say. Actually, I'd never said that before this past weekend. But then, as serendipity would have it, I got "stuck" at a ski resort during a blizzard. Oh, poor me. All I could do at Canaan Valley Resort in We…

11/11/2015

Is something changing? I see more stories on solo travel than I used to. http://bit.ly/1QvVG6r

While I gear up to write about my recent trip to Italy - Emilia Romagna specifically - I offer a roundup of solo travel stories by others. From an Australian website called "Starts at 60," a solo female traveller's (spelled the British way) checklist for traveling alone. The story addresses issues s…

11/09/2015

Walking barefoot in fire. Not for the fainthearted. http://www.boldlygosolo.com/boldly_go_solo/2015/09/fiji-fire-walking.html

For two weeks before Sawau tribesmen from the island of Beqa in Fiji perform a firewalking ceremony, they have no contact with women and don't eat coconut. If they mess with "the rules" their feet are liable to get badly burned during the ceremony. While in Fiji, I watched fire walking, not on Beqa,…

03/08/2015

Stories on why it can be a more enriching experience when you travel on your own.

http://www.boldlygosolo.com/boldly_go_solo/2015/08/traveling-solo-is-often-better-than-traveling-with-companions.html

In this story on why it's better to travel alone, the fourth reason is my favorite: deep immersion. You simply are not going to see or notice as much if you're walking with a friend or partner, while in Paris or Tokyo or anywhere else, gabbing with each other about what you just saw or where your ne…

02/07/2015

Peru is this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival theme. It never occurred to me just how quinoa grows. (On a quinoa plant, silly)

http://www.boldlygosolo.com/boldly_go_solo/2015/07/smithsonian-folklife-festival-celebrates-peru.html

The culture of Peru is on display on the Mall in Washington, D.C., until Sunday. Catch Peru: Pachamama (Mother Earth) if you can. Most of you can't, but I would say put the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on your travel to-do list, should you ever visit D.C. in late June or early July. The Smithsonian…

01/07/2015

Dining alone is doable. Really.

http://www.boldlygosolo.com/boldly_go_solo/2015/06/loving-solo-dining-or-at-least-not-hating-it-.html

There are people I know who will jump out of perfectly good airplanes or ski double black diamond slopes in Utah who are afraid to dine out alone in a nice restaurant. Afraid! In this enjoyable story on dining solo, the writer describes it this way: When chilling out at home with a bowl of popcorn g…

17/01/2015

"They" say Cleveland is the new "it" place. Opinions? I'm here to relax and revel in my new status as great aunt. Between that and stubborn ice on the sidewalks, I'm probably not going to see much of "it." But I'll be back. What to do then?

10/10/2014

Have van, will travel. To 29 states in three months.

http://www.boldlygosolo.com/boldly_go_solo/2014/10/superstar-solo-traveler-meeting-new-people-wherever-she-goes.html

I now have a solo travel idol. Her name is Laura and she's 25. She and her friend Alexa, two country girls from the (still) United Kingdom stayed with me in August, a few days before Alexa had to fly home and Laura was getting ready to continue traveling around the U.S. on her own for two months. In…